Coming Back for More

Yours Truly is really happy for Marco Melandri, for winning Race One in the World Superbike Championship race at Donington Park over the weekend.

After years struggling in the MotoGP circuit, Melandri finally found his niche and nailed long-time race leader Jakub Smrž with two laps to go for a comfortable victory.

Melandri used to be one of the front-runners in MotoGP a not so long ago. Riding for Gresini Honda in 2005, he was runner-up to Valentino Rossi with two victories.

(One of the most poignant images that year was Rossi crashing into Melandri at Motegi and badly damaged Melandri's ankle. Rossi, knowing that the crash was completely his fault, came rushing over to his friend's rescue and to apologise.)

The following year he won three more races and finished fourth in the standings. But then things went downhill, fast. Switching to Ducati in 2008, he surprisingly struggled with pace and was resigned to the minor placings throughout the year, a stark contrast to teammate Casey Stoner, the defending world champion that year. In 2009 he had another bad year with Kawasaki and although he returned to Gresini Honda in 2010, he was never the same.

And so he was exiled to the World Superbike series and luckily for him, he was finally able to show how good a rider he still is, with three podium finishes in the first four races so far.

Yours Truly must be a lucky charm for him. Being an occasional follower of MotoGP and Superbike races, Yours Truly doesn't sit down and watch these races live very often.

One of the races Yours Truly remembers watching live on TV was the Australian Grand Prix in 2006 where, in changing weather conditions, Melandri mastered the weather and came from midfield to win the race.

And as Yours Truly watched the Superbike race on the couch, he always kept his eyes on Melandri, who was stuck in fourth place early on. But once he climbed up to second, Yours Truly just knew that he was going to catch Smrž for the win.

And for sure he did.

Just hope that there would be more to come for this likeable underdog.